You don't have to give anyone a new number. Forward the one you have to your Hobb number, and every call to it rings in the Hobb app and reaches your AI as a transcript. Your old number keeps working. Nobody you know has to change a thing.
Two ways to forward
Forward everything.RECOMMENDED Every call to your old number rings in the Hobb app. Your AI gets the recording and the transcript of each one. Your old number becomes a front door; Hobb is the house.
Forward what you miss. Your phone rings first, like always. When you don't pick up, the call goes to your Hobb number instead of your carrier's voicemail. You get a transcribed voicemail in the app; your AI gets it too.
Set it up: pick your carrier
Most brands run on Verizon, AT&T or T-Mobile. Your carrier's app says which.
VZ
Verizon
Verizon network
01
Your Hobb number. It's at the top of the app. Type it here and the codes below fill in.
02
Dial this on the phone with your old number in it. Wait for the confirmation before you hang up.
NUMBER is your Hobb number's 10 digits, without the 1 in front.
Forward everything*72NUMBER
Prefer your phone to ring first, and Hobb to take what you miss?
Forward what you miss*71NUMBER
03
Call your old number from another phone. It rings in the Hobb app. Not from the Hobb app itself: a call from your Hobb number comes straight back to it.
To undo it, dial the turn-off code. Five seconds.
Turn off*73
What Verizon charges: Free. Forwarded calls use minutes like a call you made.
Check it worked
Call your old number from a different phone: a partner's, a colleague's, a landline.
Forwarding everything: your old phone stays quiet and the call rings in the Hobb app within a few seconds.
Forwarding what you miss: your old phone rings. Let it ring for about 20 seconds without answering, and it moves to Hobb.
If it goes to your usual voicemail instead, the code didn't take. Dial it again on the phone with your old number in it, and wait for the confirmation.
Not from the Hobb app. A call from your Hobb number to your old number is forwarded straight back to the number it came from, so it can't tell you anything.
The honest part
Calls forward. Texts don't. No carrier forwards texts. Your old number keeps its texts; your Hobb number has its own, and that is the one your AI reads.
Your carrier bills the forwarded call like a call you made. On an unlimited plan in the US that is nothing. On a plan with minutes, each forwarded call uses them. Some carriers bill it outside your bundle; we say so per carrier above.
Turn off Live Voicemail on iPhone (Settings, then Apps, then Phone, then Live Voicemail) if you forward what you miss. Otherwise the iPhone answers before the carrier can forward.
Your AI still doesn't answer the call. You do, in the Hobb app. It gets the transcript right after, or the voicemail if you miss it.
Carrier not listed? Try the codes for the network it runs on, or tell us and we'll add it. More on how it works and in questions.